Nasal mites in Molothrus ater (Aves: Icteridae) from different geographic locations in the USA

ABSTRACT

Nasal mites are endoparasites that spend their entire life cycle inside the nasal cavities and respiratory passages of birds. The brown-headed cowbird, Molothrus ater (Boddaert, 1783) (hereafter BHCO), is an icterid bird that uses brood parasitism as a reproductive strategy in which it lays eggs in the nests of other bird species and allows the host to raise its young. Interestingly, nasal mites previously collected from brown-headed cowbirds represent some species shared by other icterids and others known from common host taxa. In this study, we examined how nasal mite species richness and prevalence differed geographically across three of the four migratory flyways of North America in a large sample size of BHCO. In total, ~4000 nasal mites (~3900 Rhinonyssidae (Mesostigmata) and 85 Ereynetidae (Trombidiformes)), representing nine species, were recovered from 856 cowbirds with a prevalence of 89%. Nasal mite prevalence was not significantly related with geographic location or host sex, suggesting that patterns of infection in BHCO occur similarly in all locations.

KEYWORDS:

• Brown-headed cowbird
• Rhinonyssidae
• Ereynetidae
• parasitological indexes
• migratory flyways

Acknowledgments

Thanks are extended to the Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology at the University of Arkansas for all the help and support during this project and to the University of Arkansas, Division of Agriculture, and the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station. Specials thanks to Dr. Robert N. Wiedenmann, Jennifer Sexton from TW Biological Services, Scott Summers from US ARMY from Fort Hood Texas, Thomas Labedz from University of Nebraska State Museum, and Barry F Benson from USDA-Wildlife Services from Wisconsin.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).